Type-writing machine.



PATENTED AUG. 16, 1904.

J. 0. ST. 101m. TYPE WRITING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 28, 1903.

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N. AGHINB. EBT. 28, 1903.

PATENTED AUG. 16, 1904.

I 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2 UNITED STATES Patented August 16, 1904.

PATENT OFFICE.

TYPE-WRITING MACHINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent NO. 767,607, dated August 16, 1904;. Application filed September 28, 1903. Serial No. 174,928. (No model.)

.1 all whom it new concern:

Be it known that 1, JOHN CoRNELIUs ST. JOHN, a citizen of'the United States of America, residing at the city of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented new and useful Improvements in Type- Writing Machines, of which the following is a specification.

The features of this invention are applicable to many if not to all of the type-writing machines now in the market or patented, among which, notably, may be mentioned the Remington, Smith-Premier, Densrnore, Yost, Caligraph, and New Century, or, in other words, this invention is applicable to all type-writing machines employing type-carrying bars which by the action of the key-levers are swung or thrown, as it were, toward and against the platen to imprint, working through an inked ribbon, the letter or other character of the keys upon the paper sheet fed and carried by said platen and in each instance at one and the same determined center or point of the machine.

The principal objects of the invention are to reduce to the lowest degree, if not absolutely eliminating, all noise in the printing, but especially all such as is occasioned in such machines by the impact of the types upon and against the paper sheet at said platen, and to secure the imprint or impression of the types by pressure instead of by impact, and to secure other advantages in the working of the machine, as also to improve and better the type impressions on the paper sheet and on the manifolding paper sheets, if any, working through interposed carbonsheets, and it has been the aim in the making of this invention to secure said results with substantially no changes in the otherwise present construction, arrangement, and operation of said machines, and, in fact, to secure them by mechanism in the nature more of an attachment to the machines as they now exist than in any material or substantial reconstruction or rearrangement of their parts, and it is believed said objects and results have been so obtained by this invention, as will appear in the description hereinafter given thereof.

The invention essentially and principally consists in the combination, with the said several key-levers and said type-carrying bars, of a mechanism by preference mainly common to them all, which consists,in substance, first, of means to arrest the throw or swing of each and all the several type carrying bars toward the platen at a fixed point or plane near to and preferably close to the platen, and, second, of means to then press the type of each bar onto or against the paper on said platen, working through the inked ribbon, and all by one and the same depression or operation of the key-levers and then on the releasing of the pressure on the key-levers to allow or secure the return of the key-levers and of the type-bars and of said mechanims to their normal positions for a further operation, as before, all and otherwise substantially as hereinafter explained, and pointed out in the claims.

In the accompanying plates of drawings, forming part of this specification, Figure 1 is a central vertical section from front torear of a type-writing machine, such as the Remington, showing the application of this invention thereto and all the parts in their normal positions or at rest. Figs. 2 and 3 are enlarged views in detail, partly in vertical section and partly in elevation, and illustrating in Fig. 2 a type-bar and its type at the moment of the arrest of the swing or throw of the type-bar and in Fig. 3 a type-bar and its type in printing position against the paper on the platen, and in both instances they show the position of the parts of the mechanism of this invention by and through which the type-bars and types are arrested in their swing or throw and are moved to press and imprint the type on the paper sheet carried by said platen. Fig. 4 is aplan view of Fig. 2 with the platen and its donkey or paper-confining roller and the paper sheet, inked ribbon, and type-bar shown in Figs. 2 and 8 removed. Fig. 5 is an enlarged sectional view in detail on line 5 5, Fig. 2.

1n the drawings, A is the main frame.

B B are the key-levers, having their keys B arranged in a series and in bank and step' form and fulcrumed to the frame A.

U C are the vertical rods arranged in a series about a common center and each connecting a key-lever B to a crank-arm ID, fulcrumcd, on the frame A and forming part of a bar E, which at its outer end carries a type-block F, preferably detachable and faced with a typeletter of the alphabet or other character.

G is the platen for the paper sheet ll, Figs. 2 and 3. This platen (l is suspended on the upper frame or carriage I, which at its rear side is hung on a stationary horizontal rod J and is arranged totravel thercalong and on the frame A at its front side, and K is the inked ribbon, all and otherwise, except in particulars which will hereinafter appear, as in the well-known Remington type-writing machines, and therefore needing no further detail description, the same constituting no part of this invention.

L is a rod which is located below the several key-levers B and extends horizontally across and at each end is suitably journaled or hung on the frame to freely rotate or turn.

M is a strip of wood or of metal or of other suitable material which is carried by the rod L and is placed at a vertical inclination to its axis, making, as it were, a cam or crank-arm to said rod in position to be struck by each key-lever when pressed down, and thus by such movement of each key-lever and the pressure of the key-lever thereon to turn said rod L.

N is a spiral spring at one end connected to a Cl"&l1l'(-2ll'l'l] O of the rod L and at the other end to the frame A to secure when the pressure on the cam M by the key-lever is removed the return of said cam to its normal position, as shown in Fig. 1, as also to secure, acting through said rod L, a similar return of other parts of the mechanism of this invention, as will hereinafter appear.

P is a crank-arm on and opposite to the crank-arm O of the cam-rod L, and Q, is a vertical rod which is located at the front of the machine back of and midway of the several key-levers B, passing downward between the two central levers and pivoted at its lower end to the crank-arm P and at its upper end to one arm of a bell-crank R, which by its other arm is hung on and near the upper part and at the front side of the frame A. S is a red at one and itsv front end pivoted to the crank-arm R at the intersection of its two arms and at its other and hind end pivoted to the downward-projecting arm T of a block or frame T, which is arranged to slide forward and backward across the length of stationary plate or frame U, which extends from side to side of and is secured at each end on the machine-frame A and directly above or over which the inked ribbon K travels as it is fed in the usual operation of the machine. This block T is slid forward and backward on its support U by the turning of the rod L, as hereinbefore described,

and its arm T is forthe purpose of a stop to the upward throw of a type-bar E. Fig. 2, and the type-block F has acting in cooperation therewith for that purpose an arm F which projects into the pathway of said arm T of the slide-block T Preferably the arm T is cushioned, as at T with rubber, leather,

or other suitable material to prevent noise from the concussion or impact of the two arms T and F Further, the sliding frame or block T on its rear portion carries atransverse horizontal roller 1 to act as the slideblock T is moved toward the front side of the machine-frame A against the under camface F of a type carriedby a type-bar E and so to raise the type bar, its type passing through an opening 1 of slide T and open ing U of stationary plate U after its upward swing has been arrested, as before stated, and bring its type into position to press and so imprint its character on the paper sheet H, working through the inked ribbon and on the manifold paper sheets, if any, working on them through the interposed carbon-sheets. The slide of the slide-block to raise the typebar, as above explained, is secured on the depression of a key-lever by the turning of the shaft or rod L against its spring N, acting through the mechanism described-to wit, the crank-arm P of said shaft L, vertical connecting-rod Q, crank-arm R, and connectingrod S-and the return of the slide-block to its normal position, thus leaving the type-bar free to drop to its normal position, is secured by the reaction of said spring N when the pressure on the key-lever is removed.

From the above description it is plain that the movement of each type-bar toward the platen to secure an imprint or impression of its type on the paper is in two parts, as it were, to-wit: First, it is thrown or swung to the point where it is stopped by the arm T on the slide-block T and, second, then it is pressed upward to do its imprinting by the action of the roller T of the slide-block T on the camface F of the type of the type-bar. To secure said second part of the movement of the' type-bar, as above explained, without strain either on the type-bar E or its rod C, connecting it to the key-lever B, or on the key-lever or onall of them, the rod 0, Fig. 1, connecting each key-lever of the machine to its type-bar, (two of such rods and type-bars being shown in said figure,) is adapted to lengthen and being released to return to its normal length. This adaptation consists in the interposition in the length of the rod of aspiral spring C suitably connected and the rod suitably adaptedas, for instance, by dividing the rod into two parts, separated end to end from each otherand interposing said spring between the two parts and fastening it at each end to the opposing end portions of the two sections, the spring and said two parts of the rod being in continuation of each other.

It is obvious from the description given that the mechanisms of this invention and their operation in connection with the typewriter itself to stop a type-carrying bar in its movement to carry its type toward the platen, with the type, preferably, and then in close proximity to the'platen to be then raised and pressed to print, all substantially as has been described, are without substantial or material alterations of the ordinary construction, arrangement, and operation of the machine and that the mechanisms of this invention as a whole are in the nature of an attachment to the machine, and while preferably the rods C should relax or give, for reasons as stated, yet the results aimed at would be securedwithout such feature, and, further, it is obvious that only one arrangement of the mechanisms of this invention is necessary for the several key-levers and type-bars of the machine and, again, that the several advantages and results aimed at in making this invention and as hereinbefore recited are practically and substantially secured and need not again be particularly enumerated.

In order that the applied mechanisms of this invention may be put into or out of operation as to affecting the imprint of the types without necessarily detaching all of the same from the machine, and so allow the machine to be used either way, the arm T of the slide-block T, acting as the stop to the upward throw or swing of the type-bars, as explained, is made in parts, Fig. 5, secured the one to the other by a detachable pin T, which being removed enables the part making the stop proper to be attached or detached and detached leave the type on the type-bar free to strike the paper sheet on the platen the same as ordinarily.

It is preferable in order to prevent any possibility of the lifting of the carriage I under the pressure of the types in printing against the platen G, and thus on said carriage, and so for that reason the carriage I is made fast to the main frame A by means of acatch-hook or arm 1 rigidly attached to the carriage and in its free portion shaped to be sprung and so hooked to and under the front rail A of the frame A, by which, while the said lift of the carriage is prevented, yet the carriage can travel along the frame and be lifted therefrom, all as ordinarily or through the arm I itself, which for that purpose, as well for the convenient releasing of it, has a handle 1.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. Inatype-writer, astationary framelying near to the platen and across the pathway of the type-bars and having an opening for the types, in printing, to pass to the platen, a movable stop on said frame to arrest the typebars in their movement toward the platen, a

reciprocating presser I on said frame to press the types, after their arrest, toward the platen, to print, and means, actuated by and through the movements of the key-levers, to move said presser to press and to release said stop and permit of their return to their normal positions.

2. In a type-writer, a stationary frame lying near to the platen and across the pathway of the type-bars and having an opening for the types, in printing, to pass to the platen, a movable stop on said frame to arrest the typebars in their movement toward the platen, a reciprocating presser on said frame to press the types, after their arrest, toward the platen, to print, and means, actuated by and through the movements of the key-levers, to move said presser to press and to release said stop and permit of their return to their normal positions, and an arm- I attached to the carriage I, and adapted to engage with main frame A and to hold the carriage thereto against the pressure exerted by said presser in printing, but otherwise to allow said carriage to move on said frame and to be released therefrom, for the raising of the carriage.

8. In a type-writer, a stationary frame U lying near to the platen and across the pathway of the type-bars, and having an opening for the types, in printing, to pass to the platen, a reciprocating stop T on said frame having an armT in position to arrest the typebars in their movement toward theplaten, a reciprocating presser joined to said stop to press the types, after their arrest, toward the platen, to print, and means actuated by and through the movements of the key-levers, to move said presser to press and to release said stop and permit of their return to their normal positions.

a. In a type-writer, a stationary frame lying near to the platen and across the pathway of the type-bars and having an opening for the types, in printing, to pass to the platen, a movable stop on said frame to arrest the typebars in their movement toward the platen, a reciprocating presser on said frame to press the types, after their arrest, toward the platen, to print, and means, consisting of a cam and crank under the several key-levers B, vertical rod Q. connected to one arm of said crank, crank H on main frame A, having one arm connected to said crank under the key-levers, and the other arm extended and connected to said reciprocating slide 1, and spring N to re- 

